Last Possible Monetizable Thing Related to Elvis to Go Up for Auction

If there's a market for the forceps used during Elvis Presley's autopsy, does that signal a positive sign for an economic upturn? Auction items include forceps, toe tag, aneurysm hooks and more are expected sell for up to $8,000. $8,000?? I'd gladly pay twice that for Elvis' aneurysm hooks.

"The collection, saved for years by a senior embalmer at the Memphis Funeral Home who wishes to stay anonymous, also includes a toe tag marked "John Doe" which was used as a replacement after the original was stolen by a fan during chaos at the hospital.

"The mortician, who prepared the body, retained this tag and the instruments, along with the preparation room case report, the case sheet, dry cleaning tags, the hanger to the singer's suit and tie and the coffin shipping invoice, which are marked "Elvis Presley," said Mary Williams, a spokeswoman for Leslie Hindman Auctioneers."

"It's really about owning a piece of the celebrity themselves ... and how much closer can you get than the actual embalming instruments," Williams said.

What does the Elvis ( I hesitate to call it "memorabilia" but I have no other choice) memorabil--ach, I can't even type the word in this case--say about the state of the economy?

To make an extremely tenuous analogy, representatives of the photography departments at Christie’s, Phillips de Pury and Sotheby’s touted results of the spring photography auctions in April as positive signals that pointed to an improving economy, in interviews with Photo District News.

"In the best of times we had about 360 lots per sale and again we have that,” Phillips de Pury’s Director of Photographs Vanessa Kramer said. “The value is probably a little lower per lot, but we’re building ourselves back up to where it was [before the economic downturn]."

As for Elvis, welp, guess that's it, folks. The very last monetizable thing from the King, short of his actual bones I suppose, is finally going up for auction. Capitalism wins again.